Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Drew Hansen and I climbed the North Face of Vesper Peak over the weekend. On Thursday morning, I flew up to Fairanks, AK to meet with clients. By Friday afternoon, I was back on the plane to PTown, touching down at about 11 pm after getting bumped from my original shuttle from Seattle. By 8 am, I was up and packing for a weekend of climbing in the North Cascades. We got in a few pitches at Index before crashing at the trailhead for an early start on Sunday.

Drew and I were looking for an alpine day trip with an interesting objective, and Vesper fit the bill perfectly. Situated off the Mountain Loop Highway in the North Cascades, the peak offers spectacular views of the range, a short glacier crossing, an incredible north facing slab and excellent positions. Here's an overview of the route:

We gained the rock from the snow finger in the middle of the glacier. We found pretty much the only spot we could see where the moat looked reasonably safe to cross. Even there, a fall would have been real ugly, and we focused hard as we stepped across the gaping slot and onto the rock with our aluminum crampons.

From there, we headed up low angle slabs for about half a pitch looking for a way to cut into the next gully to the left. The gully straight up above us looked unpleasant, but we didn't really see many other options. We ended up climbing a mid-fifth class, right facing corner that splits the two gullies. It basically heads straight up through the shadows from the top of the snow finger in the photo above. I managed to lead up on fairly sound rock that was coated in lichen and moss. Luckily it was dry, so we got pretty bomber hand jams and cam placements in moss covered cracks - a good alternative to tape!

From the top of that pitch, we pretty much simul-climbed the rest of the route with one or two stops for navigation and re-racking. The final corner was definitely the highlight, with fun moves on bomber rock. Stepping out of the corner, I topped out to a field of alpine wildflowers just under the summit block with not a soul in sight. Ahhhhhh.

All in all, the climb took us 9 hours car-to-car, but it could be done much quicker than that. We took a wrong turn in the basin by the tarn and ended up spending an extra 30-45 minutes finding the notch. We ate a leisurely lunch on the summit and generally took it easy enjoying the fantastic weather and peaceful setting. The descent to the glacier looks kind of intimidating, but it was fairly straight forward on 3rd class ledges that dumped you out onto lower angle snow. The moat was definitely the crux followed by tricky routefinding to get out of the gullies. From there, its a romp up low angle slabs and corners to the summit followed by an easy walk off. Great day in the hills!

Kristin and I caught a great show last night at Mississippi Studios. Anders and Johnny Sansone brought a little New Orleans spice to Stump Town on a hot Monday night. In the recently refurbished space on Mississippi Ave, no more than 100 people enjoyed an intimate setting as all three performers traded songs.

This was the first time I had been inside Mississippi Studios since the redesign, and they did a great job opening up the space while maintaining its character as a small and intimate setting. A small balcony overlooks a much larger seating area that accommodates more people. The stage is only a couple of feet off the floor, and the crowd is seated right up to the edge for an easy flow of energy from artist to audience. The sound quality was a little off, mostly in the first set, but I think that was mostly the sound guy working out the kinks than the venue itself. This would be a great place to book a rocking show! Maybe some late night post-Portland Blues Fest action next year?

My little Pentax Optio W60 was working overtime last night trying to deal with the interior light, but I got a couple of decent shots. Probably should have brought the SLR kit as it was a pretty informal setting.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Five years ago, we gathered friends and family at Timberline Lodge for a wedding celebration on the slopes of Mt. Hood. Our favorite people from all over the country traveled to Oregon to wish us well, and we danced the night away to Papa Grows Funk while outside the mountain stood watch as she has for thousands of years. For the next three months, we rode our way across the West in a 1978 VW van named Blue, climbing pitch after pitch from the North Cascades to Banff and Rocky Mountain National Park with many more stops in between.

Soaking up the landscape of North America, we celebrated by searching for that sublime satisfaction of the perfect climb with the perfect partner.

Five year later, we sat at the Canadian Border in a 90 minute line, 2 hours after running out of gas (in the Prius) and five hours after leaving my sister's house in Seattle. What better way to celebrate #5 then road trippin' to Squamish for a weekend of climbing? Right at that moment, I thought anything would be better than sitting in that God damned line with all the other tourists. We got stymied by the masses and it was pissing me off. What should have been a five year mini-reprise of the climbing honeymoon was turning into a five-hour ordeal of traffic, borders and delays.

We had laid a plan to travel to Squish on Friday and climb a few pitches at the Smoke Bluffs. Saturday morning, we would wake up and climb Angel's Crest, IV 5.10b, 13 pitches up the North side of the Chief - Kristin's biggest climb to date.

Sunday and Monday we would kick back, enjoy the buzz of a successful route and climb some more cracks till we had to return back to Portland.

The plan went awry. We finally pulled into Squamish late on Friday afternoon and got in a couple of pitches in the Bluffs up by Penny Lane. We met a couple of people and got to talking about weekend plans, and they had already talked to three other parties headed to Angel's Crest the next day. They also told us how they screwed up the approach to AC, ending up in North North Gully only to find the base of the climb three and a half hours after leaving the car. Hmm ... crowds and getting lost. Sounds great.

Saturday morning we woke up at 5 am and were headed up the trail by 6. We dutifully trudged up the forest, found the entrance to the gully and then started looking for the climb. We roped up and scrambled up some scruffy 4th/5th class towards what we thought was the buttress. After a couple of pitches of this BS, we finally accepted the fact that we had made the exact same mistake as our friends from the day before and ended up on the approach to North North Arete. Arrrgghhh! Just as we turned around, another party showed up looking for the same climb. At least we weren't the only ones - I guess misery loves company. We pointed them in the right direction (downhill) as we rapped off and packed it up. So much for Saturday.

Sunday we finally got our act together and once again found ourselves walking through the old-growth forest at 6 am. This time, we knew where we were going and found the start of the climb after about 20 minutes of walking. And off we went - the Angel's Anniversary.

P1 - Climb the cedar tree. It bypasses two scruffy pitches and deposits you right at the start of the Angel Crack. Its also faster and a good way to pass parties low on the route. Plus the fifth is the "wood" anniversary!

P2 - Sweet! Early morning air, a clean crack and nice views. The .10a crux is at the end, with excellent rests along the traversing pitch. Save a little gas in the tank.

P3 - The supposed crux. Step down to the left, then a couple hand jams into straightforward face climbing past 2 bolts. I thought this was pretty easy for .10b.

P4 - Easy climbing up broken terrain.

P5 and 6 - Another solid .10a pitch Enticing cracks head straight up but climb right on face holds to a right facing corner with a finger crack. Easy for .10a. Instead of belaying, head straight up the face until you get to the forest. About a 185 feet.

P7 - Move the belay a short ways up through the forest to the ramp system that heads straight up the buttress. The entrance to the second ramp is a bit tricky on thin gear but not at all strenuous. The .10a corner above is super fun!

P9 - So fun! Climb up easy cracks and slabs to the top of the lower tower and then walk across on a narrow fin of solid granite. From the end of the traverse, climb up more low angle cracks straight to the summit of the tower and belay from directly on top off of two bolts. Quite a perch!

P11 - Climb up a wide crack to the whaleback arete. Traverse the whale back to the next ledge and belay. Fun position and good climbing.

P12 - This is the real crux of the route. From a tree belay on a narrow ledge, step past a manky old pin to the right until you can see two crack system close together. Head up the right hand crack and over a small roof - probably the crux moves - then into a narrow slot/chimney. Plug in some gear in the back and then up again over a small roof to a good stance under the final headwall crack. Climb the awesome hand crack with amazing exposure and stellar rock to the top and a huge ledge. Woohoo!! I thought this was pretty solid for .10a. Save some juice for this pitch.

P13 - Step right and climb the chimney. Left side in with straightforward chimney moves leads quickly to lower angle cracks and then you're on top. The second should definitely trail the pack off the belay loop for the chimney moves - really only a couple of moves.

From the top, we had a few minutes to relax and reflect on the weekend. We finally found that elusive state of mind - strung out from adrenaline and physically tired but proud of the work with a safe and easy descent back to the car. Ahhhh.

Perfect climb? Mmmmm ... I would say excellent but far from perect.

Perfect partner? Definitely!

In the end, the 5th Anniversary climb parodied lots of other experience we've had on the rock over the last five years. Plans get screwed up. We get lost. Maybe we don't get in as many pitches as we wanted. But with a little patience, we eventually find ourselves in that moment of focus and relaxation with air beneath us and the Angels above.